1909 Kellogg Camps – after 1922 - Wight Camps

Relief map of the Bear River valley in Newry, Maine.	In 1904 Charles Kellogg purchased 45 acres of forest land that was bordered by Wight Brook. The land that the camps occupy today is owned by the Wight family. It is still a heavily wooded parcel in the valley at the foot of Step Falls. Step Falls is now protected by a 23 acre parcel owned by the Nature Conservancy since 1962. Kellogg built the camps in two stages: first, he built a main lodge with a close by dining hall. Then a number of log cabin style camps were built in a line on either side of the main lodge. Camps were connected by a raised wooden “sidewalk”. Water for the camps was piped from Wight Brook to the lodge and water was heated by a channel within the main stone fireplace. Eventually a hydro power system was built to produce electricity. See photo of water wheel below. The seven camps pictured below were photographed in 1996. They were the last remaining camps built by Kellogg and later owned by the Wight’s for vacationing tourists. These camps were individually owned for seasonal use when these photos were taken for Town of Newry records.
	Hermit Frank Pagurko 42 Little Avenue Westbrook, ME 04092 19 Camp Road R-7 Lot 8A
	The Nolans John Nolan PO Box 3207 Telluride, Colorado 17 Camp Road Map R-7 Lot 8
	Snowbird Roger and Marie Patch 50 Lake Shore Drive Middleton, New Hampshire 03887 15 Camp Rd R-7 Lot 7
	Camp Time George Wight RFD 2 Box 2220-90 Bethel, Maine 04217 13 Camp Road R-7 Lot 6
	The Bald Eagle Nest Willard A. Wight 1619 Bear River Road Newry, Maine 04261 44 Kellogg Lane R-7 Lot 5
	The Parsonage Michael G. Wheeler 157 Baker Road Bethel, Maine 04217 50 Kellogg Lane R-7 Lot 4
	Mountain View Jacob and Justin Shaw 87 Summer Street Milford, New Hampshire 03055 52 Kellogg Lane R-7 Lot 3
	The Pelton style water wheel, shaft and flywheel mark the entrance to the camp area – the junction of Route 26 (Bear River Road) and Kellogg Lane, a private road on Wight family property. An aqueduct that was at first made of wood, later replaced by an iron eight inch pipe, carried water from Step Falls to the generator building. Descendants of Fred Wight, who owned the camp site after Kellogg, are quite certain the water powered generator was built during the time Charles Kellogg was at the camps. Fred Wight did not build the system. Having the water wheel is the best evidence that the system was built.

Source of camp and owner information is the Town of Newry Assessor Records – 1996.

The Bethel Journals

Donald G. Bennett

PO Box 763

Bethel, Maine 04217

Donald@thebetheljournals.info